What are referred to as drum magazines have long been known in prior art. In this context, the reader is referred to U.S. Pat. No. 2,131,412 for instance. Generally, said drum magazines incorporate a drum housing inside of which there is carried a greater number of for example 50 or more cartridges in an orientation parallel to the axis of the drum housing. The cartridges are conveyed on a spiral path by a follower into a magazine head, said follower advancing by the width of one cartridge after each shot via a mechanism operating under the action of a spring. A spiral spring that can be wound up in the fashion of a mainspring can be used as the spring for example. At need, the drum magazine may be attached to various types of weapons via an adapter.
Another drum magazine having the features of the type mentioned herein above is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,742 A wherein the follower, whose one end engages behind the last cartridge in the magazine and pushes the cartridges on their spiral path through the housing, is articulated to the rotatable driver plate in the region of its other end. Thus, in principle, the head of the follower moves on the same spiral path as the cartridges while the end of the follower, which is articulated to the driver plate, always moves on an exterior circular path together with the driver plate, so that the angular position of the follower changes as a function of the filling level of the magazine. Since the mechanics used with this prior art drum magazine is quite complex, the feeding and ejection of the cartridges, which occurs in very short intervals when in use, may be subject to failures. In particular the introduction of forces is disadvantageous due to the pivotal attachment of the follower in the outer region of the driver plate. A force component is thus generated, which presses the follower outward against the wall of the divider device, thus causing friction forces to generate and possibly the follower to get jammed.